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Why Are Grown Adults Suddenly Obsessed With Squishy Toys?

BYMille Team

September 3, 2026

The first time I encountered a NeeDoh, it belonged to my three-year-old niece. She had several of them, these soft, brightly colored things scattered among the usual collection of toys I had come to expect from her, and that I assumed that was roughly where they belonged. Then I picked one up.

There is something embarrassingly difficult about putting a NeeDoh down once it is in your hand. You squeeze it, flatten it, push your thumb into it, watch it slowly regain its shape, and then do the whole thing again without making any conscious decision to continue. Before long, I started noticing them elsewhere, including on TikTok, on desks, inside handbags and, increasingly, in the hands of people considerably older than my niece.

@needohofficial This unboxing = instant serotonin😌🫧 So many textures, so many colors… 🎥 @.xoxo.toys #NeeDoh #NeeDohOfficial #SensoryToys #NiceCube #FidgetToys ♬ original sound – NeeDoh Official

If you have spent any time online this year, you have probably noticed them too. NeeDoh, the squishy sensory toy made by Massachusetts-based toy company Schylling, has become one of 2026’s more unexpected consumer crazes. The brand’s bestselling Nice Cube looks almost comically simple, essentially a translucent cube filled with a gel-like substance that offers varying resistance depending on how you squeeze it. Yet retailers have struggled to keep the toys on shelves, while social media videos dedicated to squeezing, comparing, and collecting different versions regularly attract millions of views.

Plenty of children want them, of course. What makes the current obsession more interesting is how many adults seem equally determined to get their hands on one.

That shift extends far beyond NeeDoh. Adults aged 18 and older have overtaken preschoolers as the biggest toy-buying demographic in the United States, generating more than $7.6 billion in annual purchases in 2024. The phenomenon has become significant enough to earn its own slightly irritating industry term, “kidults,” covering grown consumers buying Lego sets, plush toys, figurines, collectibles, and other products traditionally marketed toward children. Circana has also pointed toward the growing popularity of toys associated with mindfulness and mental well-being, while describing consumers as increasingly willing to spend money on products offering a little emotional respite.

There is an obvious explanation for at least part of that emotional respite. We are anxious. Very anxious, if the numbers are anything to go by. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 359 million people worldwide were living with an anxiety disorder in 2021, making anxiety disorders the most common mental disorders globally. In the UAE, one study of adults across the country found that 33.1 percent of participants aged 18 to 35 experienced severe social anxiety, compared with 13 percent of those aged 36 and older. Another study involving more than 7,200 Emirati university students found that younger participants were more likely to experience anxiety, with eight percent of respondents reporting severe symptoms.

Clinical psychologist Barbara Greenberg, who specializes in adolescents, wrote in Psychology Today earlier this year that she keeps NeeDoh toys available for patients and has seen teenagers use them as an alternative to behaviors such as skin picking and self-harm. She has also observed adults reaching for them to manage stress and anxiety, or simply to occupy their hands while working and studying.

People have always found ways to keep their hands occupied, whether by clicking pens, twirling hair, doodling in margins, or bouncing a leg beneath a desk. Long before anyone used the word “sensory” to sell a toy, repetitive tactile behaviors were already embedded in everyday life. The modern stress ball simply turned that impulse into a product, and NeeDoh has given the stress ball a considerably more photogenic makeover.

By early 2026, Google searches for NeeDoh had reportedly reached an all-time high, while retailers described shipments disappearing almost as soon as they arrived. Schylling CEO Paul Weingard said the company sold through its projected inventory for the entire year within the first nine weeks of 2026. Some stores began imposing purchase limits, while NeeDoh toys that normally cost somewhere between a few dollars and around $15 began appearing on resale platforms for dramatically inflated prices. There’s something almost amusing about toy people buy to relieve stress becoming difficult enough to find that people are stressing themselves out trying to buy one.

It also raises a more uncomfortable question about the way wellness and consumerism have become increasingly difficult to separate. The NeeDoh craze might eventually disappear as quickly as countless internet obsessions before it, but the impulse behind it probably will not. Adults have always fidgeted, picked, tapped, and squeezed their way through stressful moments. We have simply reached the point where somebody figured out how to package that impulse in a translucent cube and sell out an entire year’s supply in nine weeks.

Why Are Grown Adults Suddenly Obsessed With Squishy Toys?

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